May, 2005

Dear Dharma sponsors, devotees, and friends,

His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje has endorsed that we do the Vajrasattva Puja and mantra recitation 100 million times this year at Rumtek, Dharma Chakra Centre, the Karmapa’s main seat. The puja will be done by the monks and lay participants of Dharma Chakra Centre and is open to all devotees from different parts of Sikkim, and outside the state as well. This puja, in accordance with the Sangthik Dor-Sem Sadhana text, will start from 23rd of May 2005, 5:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. daily, until the mantra has been recited 100 million times.

The mantra of Vajrasattva is:

OM BENZA SATTO HUNG or OM VAJRA SATTVA HUM.

We appeal to all our Dharma sponsors, devotees, and friends in Sikkim to come and participate in this precious opportunity for the benefit of all sentient beings. We also request you to contribute your number of mantras recited or a monetary contribution to the “Dhungdrub Donation Counter” in Rumtek Monastery, Dharma Chakra Centre, in any way you can. You can also make your contribution of mantra recited to this e-mail: dhungdrubtsogpa@yahoo.co.in.

This year’s puja is done for the well-being, long life and accomplishment of all the wishes of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, all the holy beings who uphold the Dharma, and the flourishing of their Dharma activities.

The puja is also done with the sincere prayer that His Holiness Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje will be allowed to return soon to his main seat in Sikkim, to live and study in Sikkim for the benefit of his disciples in this state and all over the world. We also pray that he will be granted the permission to travel to various places where his disciples reside in India, and the world over.

We pray this puja brings peace, happiness and harmony among all the people in the world. May the people of the world cherish their precious human birth and be guided by goodness and virtue.

Pal Gyalwang Karmapae Jesdan Tsogpa, His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa’s Remembrance Association, was established in 1983 at Rumtek, Dharma Chakra Centre by the four regents or heart-sons of His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa to perform the traditional Dorje Sempa (Vajrasattva deity) Puja and recitation of his mantra 100 million times (Dorje Sempa Dhungdrub Puja) by the monks and lay devotees during the auspicious month of Saga Dawa, the month in which the day of Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and mahaparinirvana falls.

This was done for the swift rebirth of His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa’s incarnation, as well as for his long life and for the spread of his Dharma activities. This puja is to purify all our negative actions, particularly those associated with breaches of our solemn promise undertaken to our Supreme Guru, His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje. This puja has been going on since the association was formed. The puja and mantra recitation of Guru Rinpoche and of His Holiness Karmapa were also done.

This is the sixteenth year of the puja since the original two working members along with the two additional members appointed by the Tsurphu labrang in 1994 continue to take responsibility. Since then it has been going on quite well with the blessings of the Triple Gem and His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje.

The complete arrangements for the program, tea, and food for the entire assembly of ordained and lay sangha are financed by the Karmapa’s Dhungdrup Tsogpa (Karmapa’s Mantra Recitation Puja Committee) through the donations received from the individual participants during the puja. From the kind donations of the individuals especially during the puja, a small but indispensable surplus that is left from the year before enables us to start the next year’s Dhungdrub Puja. Therefore devotees are kindly requested to continue their patronage.

The copy of the annual audit of this Puja Committee is sent to the Karmapa and the general secretary of the Tsurphu labrang (the administrative office of the Karmapa).

Anyone wishing to participate by contributing money if they cannot attend can do so by sending a donation of any amount to Mr. Karma Chungyalpa, the deputy general secretary of Rumtek; Tsurphu labrang; or the secretary of the committee through Dharma Chakra Centre, via Ranipul P.O. Rumtek-737135 East Sikkim, India. You can also send directly to the Karmapa under the heading “For the Puja of Karmapa’s Dhungdrub Tsogpa” (Karmapa’s Mantra Recitation Puja Committee).

Many thanks to all the participants last year; we look forward to even more participants this year.

May your prayers and your virtuous deeds bring health, happiness, and prosperity in your Dharma life, planting the seed for Buddhahood!

With all the best wishes and kind regards.

Sincerely yours in the Dharma,

Secy., T.D. Lharisang
Karmapa’s Dhungdrub Puja Committee
Rumtek, Dharma Chakra Centre
P.O. Rumtek-737135
East Sikkim, India
 

*

(The following is a letter from His Eminence Gyaltsab Rinpoche, the resident regent of the Karmapa in Rumtek, underlining the benefits of Dorsem Dhungdrub. This English translation appeared in the Sikkim newspaper, Jamata in 1983.)
 

The Merits of Dorsem Dhungdrub and an Exhortation to Virtuous Action

The revealing of the mandala abode of Dorje Sempa and puja of the recitation of 100 million root mantras of Dorje Sempa (Dorsem Dhungdrub) will be performed at the main dharma seat of His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa, Rumtek Shedrup Chokhorling, East Sikkim, India annually during the month of Saga Dawa with effect from this year.

The benefit of this puja is to bring about both temporal and ultimate happiness of all sentient beings as limitless as space, for which the practice of the Noble Doctrine is the only cause. Regarding this, much has been written in both sutra and tantra. In short, it can be subsumed under the categories of (1) the accumulation of merit, and (2) the abandoning of non-virtuous action. Many methods for abandoning non-virtuous action have been elucidated, but the most efficacious antidote for purifying non virtuous actions is the recitation of the hundred-syllable mantra. Not only does it purify the minor transgressions, but also renders complete purification of the five immeasurable moral evils. As mentioned in tantra:

One who recites the hundred-syllable mantra can purify even the five immeasurable moral evils.

It allays the unfortunate circumstances and general unsatisfactory nature of this samsaric world, and its benefits in helping one to complete the two accumulations of merit and wisdom which culminates in total liberation are boundlessly beyond imagination. It is said in tantra:

One who recites the hundred-syllable mantra accumulates merit equal to that which adorns all the Buddhas, as numerous as motes of dust.

One will perpetually obtain the precious human body until ultimately attaining sublime Buddhahood. As stated further in the tantra:

. . .In the end reaching the ultimate goal of Buddhahood.

Similarly, the limitless merits resulting from the recitation of this mantra have been revealed in both old and new tantric treatises.

There is no other means by which to atone for violations of the Vinaya, Bodhisattva and tantric vows, and in particular for transgressions in any degree against one's solemn promise undertaken to the guru's body, speech, and mind.

In order to confess and atone for all the failings in maintaining our solemn promise undertaken to His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa, whose enlightened activity encompasses the three times, his devotees the world over and particularly here will perform this puja especially for the swift appearance of the radiant countenance of the Reincarnate, the Dharma King of the Three Realms; thereafter, the Matchless Lord and Crown Jewel of the Kagyu Tradition's immediate return to the indestructible Throne of the Dharma; and for him to remain for endless aeons in the world turning unceasingly the wheel of the profoundly sublime Buddhadharma for the benefit of all beings.

Thus, Pal Gyalwang Karmapa, Jesdan Tsogpa is specifically founded for the above-mentioned noble causes. And therefore, it is each and every individual's own responsibility for both his temporal and ultimate benefit to make the best of this grand opportunity.

(Signed) His Eminence Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche
Seat-Holder of His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa
Rumtek Monastery, East Sikkim, India
15 April 1983
 

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